7 Winning Strategies for PPC Remarketing Success

Google recently mentioned that “97% of new visitors do not convert the first time they arrive at your site.” While you never get a second chance to make a first impression, you have limitless opportunities to make that critical second impression, thanks to remarketing in AdWords.

Google AdWords’ robust remarketing feature can enhance and expand your PPC campaign. This article will focus on seven high-level strategies that you can employ to bring users back to your website using remarketing after they’ve made their initial visit.

Remarketing: Definition & Basics

When someone visits your website, you can drop a tracking cookie onto their computer. Later, when that individual is viewing other websites that utilize Google AdSense, you can display your PPC ad in front of that user again via the Google AdWords Display Network (GDN).

The objective of this type of targeting is to encourage the user to return to your website – and hopefully convert!

Target Segment Strategies

Remarketing is extremely flexible and you can get tremendously precise with your targeting. You can target users who visit specific pages on your website.

For example, consider this list of targeting strategies:

Visits to your homepage: This is your broadest targeting method. You can deliver GDN ads to anyone who visits your homepage.

Visits to specific product pages: If you’re an ecommerce client, you can target users who visit specific products on your website. Or if you offer a variety of different services, you can target users for each service they visit.

Visits to your landing pages: More than likely, visitors to your landing page will come from PPC. You can retarget these individuals in an effort to gain more value from that initial click.

Visits to your shopping cart: If a visitor goes all the way through your website, looks at your products, and actually places one or more items in their shopping cart – they are pretty engaged. You can target users who use your shopping cart but don’t purchase.

Visits to your confirmation page: Does your product have a high propensity for reorders? You can target users who visit the purchase confirmation page. You can encourage your previous customers to purchase again by bringing them back to your website with remarketing.

Visits to your FAQ/Contact page: If a user looks for additional information on your site, such as your FAQ page or contact form, they have exhibited a high level of interest because they are actively looking for answers. However, if they have to search deep into your website’s content, they may not find what they’re looking for. You can bring these specific users back to your site and help them convert.

Visits to your free trial confirmation page: If you offer any type of pre-conversion action, such as a free trial or a whitepaper download, you can target users who complete this initial engagement action. For example, if you offer a 30-day free trial of your product, you can deliver ads to individual who are in this trial period and encourage them to purchase your product.

These are just a few strategies that work. Your remarketing options are as unique as the structure of your website.

How Can These Targeting Segmentations Apply to Your Website?

Ask yourself these questions:

Why would someone leave your website before converting?

What does it mean if a user leaves your website on a specific page?

What would you say to these abandoned visitors to get them back, and how would you convince them to convert?

Mediate on these questions for now. Remember, you have numerous opportunities to make a second impression. But since your first impression didn’t pull the visitor in enough to convert – let’s make the second one count!

Next time: ad messaging tactics and landing page strategies that can help you get the most out of remarketing. See you then.

This article was originally posted on SearchEngineWatch.com on May 13, 2011.